Workforce Housing Study and Proposal Accepted

The November Council Meeting was the first with a complement of four Council Members. The fifth (Group 2) position will not be filled until 2021. (If no one ‘jumps in the race’ by the end of November, former Mayor/Council Member Marcie Tinsley will be automatically deemed to have been elected.) All were present in Council Chambers for the meeting. At the conclusion of the meeting, Vice-Mayor Pro-tem Rachelle Litt was ‘voted’ in as Vice-Mayor and various committee memberships that were previously attended by now County Commissioner Maria Marino, were assigned to others on the Council.

The topic(s) of Workforce Housing – Study and Report, CDBG Cares Act funding, and the updated five year plan for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) were presented as a single presentation by Joann Skaria, Planning Manager, AICP of the Planning and Zoning Dept. The talk covered Resolutions 63, 2020, Resolution 64, 2020 and Resolution 66, 2020 on the agenda.

Workforce Housing – The study covered a lot of possible solutions. Following are those that were recommended by the study and staff. “Staff recommends that upon adoption of this report, the City Council direct staff to proceed with the necessary recommended solutions, Comprehensive Plan Text Amendments, Land Development Regulations Text Amendments, and/ or Standard Operating Procedures, depending on the unique solution, outlining specific parameters and processes in order to move forward with the implementation.” Resolution 66, 2020 passed 4:0.

Workforce Housing Solutions
1. Non-Residential Square Footage Intensity Bonus – Recommended
2 . Residential Density Bonus – Recommended
3. Housing Trust Fund – Recommended
4. Impact Fee Credits – Recommended
5. Waiver of Building Permit Application Review Fee – Recommended
6. Expedited Permitting – Recommended
Page 16 of 17
7. Accessory Dwelling Units (AD Us) – Recommended
8. Community Contribution Tax Credit Program (CCTCP) – Recommended

Cares Act funding allows the $483K in covid-19 related funding to be applied to housing assistance (rental/mortgage) to residents whose livelihood was directly affected by Covid. The following chart shows the distribution of those funds as passed in Resolution 63, 2020.

 

The CDBG Five-Year plan was approved along with the proposed project for the first year – an infrastructure project (water lines) for Mary Circle and Dania Drive. Resolution 63, 2020 passed 4:0.

All other Ordinances/Resolutions passed 4:0. Of note:

• Ordinance 12, 2020 – First Reading – documented the change of Alcohol Sales in the City from 8am to 7am
• Resolution 62, 2020 approved changes to the McDonald’s at Promenade Plaza including two drive through lanes and improved landscaping.

Vice Mayor Marino Heads to the County Commission

The October 1, 2020 City Council Meeting was the last for Vice-Mayor and former Mayor Maria Marino who won the County Commission District One seat in August.  The council held a goodbye ceremony coupled with a city-produced short film showing highlights from Ms. Marino’s almost two-terms in office.  Here is the Palm Beach Post coverage.  We of PBGWatch also join in thanking Maria for her contributions to the City and wish her all the best in her new role as County Commissioner.

City Administrator Ferris had one item to report.   The City has undertaken an initiative to implement  ‘Cultural Competency’ training- dealing with racism in the workplace.  Sheryl Stewart, HR Administrator and the department’s consultant – Barbara Cheives, President of Converge and Associates Consulting, made a brief presentation.

Public comment was made by a resident requesting that the Council consider allowing alcohol sales at 7am instead of at the current 8am ordinance.  He raised the same issues previously discussed by Mayor Woods in September regarding the impact to those heading out early (eg professional fishermen) having to buy beer outside of the Gardens before heading to their respective marinas.  At the end of the meeting during Council Discussion, the Council directed City Attorney Lohman to bring a new ordinance to the Council next month moving in the permitted sales time to 7am.

Other actions included the approvals of the members and alternates for AIPP, Parks and Rec, and PZAB boards.

The Council decided not to appoint someone in the role of council-member in Vice-Mayor Marino’s place but to leave the spot empty until the March 2021 City Election.  There is currently only one person who has opened a campaign so far – former Mayor and Council member Marcie Tinsley.

Should you know of any other potential candidate – election qualification information can be found on the City’s Election site.  Here are some specifics from the site:

Group 2 – To fill unexpired term until March 2022.

Notice of Candidacy:
• Qualifying by Petition begins on Wednesday, September 16, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. and ends
on Friday, November 6, 2020, at noon. This is also the deadline for submitting signed
petitions to the City Clerk for verification.
• Qualifying by Filing Fee begins on Monday, November 16, 2020, at 8:00 a.m. and ends
on Monday, November 30, 2020, at 4:30 p.m.

The next Council meeting will be held on November 5th at 6pm.

 

Hero Officer David Joy Recognized – updated w Both Budget Hearings

At a time when police are under assault (both figuratively and literally) across our nation, it was wonderful to see a member of the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department honoring Officer David Joy for his quick action in saving a severely injured vehicle accident victim. “He was recognized by the Palm Beach Gardens City Council, Fire Department, and Police Chief Clinton Shannon on September 10, 2020. Officer Joy was awarded the Police Department’s Life Saving Award and the Fire Department’s Call of the Quarter Award.” Please see the City’s coverage here and CBS 12’s coverage here.   Congratulations, thanks and kudos to Officer Joy!

The first of two FY 2020/2021 Budget Hearings had the annual presentation by Finance Director Allan Owens. While Mayor Woods claimed to have explored a modest cut in the tax rate with staff, he and apparently all on the Council excepting Council Member Marciano, were convinced that the millage should remain flat at 5.55. Marciano, who is more experienced in the workings of the Budget than any other currently on the Council (given his long-time membership on the Budget Oversight Review Board and his time on the Council), once again argued for a modest decrease in the tax rate to 5.50. He recognized and stated that the role of goverment is not to run profits, nor is it to act as a bank. The council and staff and even the Budget Oversight Review Board always seem to find a reason why ‘next year’ is the right year to consider lowering the millage – last year citing hurricanes, and this year citing Covid-19. Council Member Marciano pointed out that even had the millage been lowered last year, all would have been well with the reserves and the City would have been able to make do. His counter motion to consider such a cut was not even seconded for discussion. Thanks to Mark Marciano for standing up for the taxpayers and standing up for his principles. The second reading and adoption will be on Thursday, Sept 24 at 6pm. Note that Mr. Owens added a new chart (shown above) which demonstrated that the ‘ten year’ projections consistently under-estimate what revenues will be. Ordinance 7, 2020 passed 4:1 with Council Member Marciano voting No.

All other Ordinances and Resolutions passed 5:0. Of note:

• Ordinance 10, 2020 establishing the Transit-Oriented Design District provides for a higher density central core of the city – which was lauded by Council Members Reed and Vice Mayor Marino. See the chart for a description.

• Resolution 52, 2020 approved a new Learning Experience Daycare to replace the previously approved mixed-used building within the Banyan Tree PUD Phase II. The council expressed concerns about traffic, questioned the time of drop-off (staggered – unlike a school which has a fixed start), and physical protection of the proposed play area from vehicles (approved by the Police department with strategically placed concrete bollards).
• Resolution 53, 2020 – La Terre at Avenir (Residential Pod 2 – Site Plan #1) – the price of the single family homes for the new subdivision will range from $675K – mid-800k.
• Old business Ordinances 8/9, 2020 Second Reading and Adoption – once again, Palm Beach County, represented by Khurshid Mohyuddin, Principal Planner, Transportation Planning Dept, made Public Comment objecting to the City’s Mobility Plan.

City Hall will be open for business with the public starting September 21!

The new Tennis Center official ribbon cutting ceremony is targeted for October 1st.

************Update****************

The Second Budget Hearing and Adoption of the Millage Rate and the FY 2020/2021 Budget took place on Thursday, Sept. 24.  Resolution 41, 2020 and Ordinance 7, 2020 passed 4:1 with Council Member Marciano objecting.  At the end of the meeting Council Member Reed spoke briefly about her respect for Marciano’s position;  Marciano countered with his respect for how the council works as a team and his hope to convince them otherwise next year.

Modest 3.1% Tax Increase in 2021 Budget

The proposed 2021 PBG Budget raises about $2M in new taxes, up a modest 3.1% over last year. See the Proposed Budget here.

With the millage flat at 5.55 since reduced to that level in 2016, this is the sixth year that increases in property valuations and new construction have provided an equivalent increase in revenue without raising the tax rate. In 2015, ad-valorem revenue was $49M. This year’s $69M is a 41% increase over the six years of flat millage.

If you add in the effect of the 10 year 1% sales tax surcharge which gives the city about another $3M per year, the increase over 2015 is actually about 47%.

You may recall that prior to the passage of the sales tax surcharge in 2016, PBG staff had said they didn’t need any additional sources of funds, and if it passed, would return some to the taxpayers in a millage reduction. That too changed of course when the full 10 year revenue stream was captured in a bond and allocated to projects starting immediately, including $11M for the new district park.

Assuming the flat millage budget is passed as proposed, the 3.1% tax increase compares to an estimated increase in population of about 3% and mild inflation of about 1% (July to July CPI change), so the increase is about what economic conditions would expect, although the effects of the Covid-19 shutdowns make it hard to project into the future.

Since 2005, the population of Palm Beach Gardens will have grown by about 41% (BEBR estimate – see below) to its estimated 2021 level of 59K.  Inflation, measured by the consumer price index, will be about 33%. Taken together, TABOR would suggest a growth in city spending and taxation of about 88%. (see graph below).

Over the same period (2005-2021), ad-valorem taxes grew 97% and total expenditures (budget less debt payment, capital and transfers) grew 81%. Spending closely follows the TABOR line, and ad-valorem taxes is not widely divergent (although exceeding TABOR since 2017) suggesting spending and taxation appropriate to a growing city.

It should be noted that ad-valorem taxes fund only a part of city expenditures, the rest made up from impact fees, fees for services, other taxes, intergovernmental grants, etc. and have varied from 66% of the total in 2005 to about 70% now. That is why taxes and expenses do not track each other on the chart.

Another useful measurement is taxes per capita – Ad valorem taxes divided by population and then inflation adjusted. By this measure, in 2005 we paid $1,097 per person to our city and in 2021 it will be $1,152 (2020 dollars).   Although not too far above the 2005 level,  tax per capita was as low as $990 in 2014 after a millage reduction.  It should be noted that as property owners, we pay taxes to other entities besides the city – county, schools, health care district, etc. In 2019 the Palm Beach Gardens portion of the amount on our TRIM statement is about 27% of the total.

The chart below shows an actual decline in per-capita taxation, yet there is reason to believe the BEBR population estimates have missed some of the city’s growth (see below).  If the numbers are adjusted to match the growth in voter registrations since 2016 for example, the curve is much flatter since there are more people to pay the taxes.

So if you trust TABOR, or per-capita as measuring sticks, this modest growth in taxation for 2021 seems appropriate in our view. You be the judge.

Turnpike Widening by 2024, Relief Fund and Capital Improvement Updates

The Consent Agenda and the only resolution on the agenda – Resolution 47, 2020 updating the fees and charges schedule passed 5:0 with no discussion. The bulk of the meeting was related to presentations and the City Manager report.

Turnpike Widening Project

The turnpike will be widened from 4 to 8 lanes to serve anticipated demand by 2040. The presentation was specific to the area affecting Palm Beach Gardens from the Beeline Highway exits to Indiantown Rd. Due to the widening, all overpass bridges will need to be replaced. The new lanes will be added on the west side of the turnpike. The questions by the Council and the City Manager were specific to noise levels and the project will be doing ‘noise wall’ needs assessments. While this was a short update, there will be meetings with those in impacted areas as well as public meetings in the 2021 time-frame.

Mission Lifeline Gold Plus award from the American Heart Association

This is the 4th consecutive year that PBG Fire/Rescue has received this award which is given to Fire and EMS agencies that meet strict guidelines when treating patients suffering a heart attack. Congratulations to the department! Cory Wilder, Director of Public Services, spoke about the award, and also reiterated that no one should hesitate in calling 911 – the hospitals and Fire/Rescue are safe!

City Manager Report

• City Manager Ferris summarized how many companies and people were aided by the Small Business Relief Fund and the Unemployed Resident Relief Fund
  • In total $989K went to 69 small businesses
  • 1248 residents received $200 Publix gift cards for a total of $312K with the efforts of a lot of volunteers – city staff, council and Christ Fellowship Church
• Covid-19 update
  •  Since March 10 – Fire/Rescue has had 179 covid-19 encounters (calls – not necessarily positives); 2 F/R personnel in quarantine
  • PBGMC has 32 Covid positive patients, 43 beds available but none in ICU – 4 deaths in total
  • Jupiter Medical center – 24 covid patients, 73 beds available, 7 beds in icu – 26 deaths in total
  • The city has 9 ALF/nursing homes with 1439 residents – current status 3 covid-19 patients
• Capital Improvements Update
  • Deputy Community Service Administrator Angela Brown and colleague Jennifer Nelli presented. See the Palm Beach Post article outlining the status of the major projects they covered here.

During items of Resident Interest – Council Member Reed encouraged everyone to Vote!

Renaming City Hall, Potential Tax Hike, and More

Many disparate subjects were covered in the July 16 City Council Meeting. A quick summary can be found in the Palm Beach Post’s “Gardens council caps property tax rate at last year’s level… what it means for your taxes”    All Resolutions and Ordinances were passed 5:0.

Please note that at the end of the meeting, Mayor Woods suggested and the Council voted to start future monthly City Council Meetings (and special meetings such as the bi-monthly budget workshops in September) at 6 PM.

Additional items not covered in the Palm Beach Post article and comments:

• Supervisor of Elections Wendy Sartory Link updated the Council on the upcoming elections. Over 300K vote by mail (VBM) ballots have been sent out so far. Every ballot is counted. VBM ballots received by Monday night as well as early voting results are posted at 7 right after the polls close on Tuesday. Those that arrive on Tuesday are counted with the rest of the election day results. VBM is postage prepaid; can be dropped off at the 4 SOE offices and also at any of the 18 early voting sites. Early voting is at 18 sites, from 10am-7pm on 8/3 – 8/16; wait times will be posted for early voting. Real time voter turn out is posted and updated every 15 minutes throughout the day – down to the precinct level. On Election day polls are open 7am-7 pm and one votes in one’s own precinct. Safety precautions will include: Temperatures will be taken of pollworkers and filling out health survey; masks, facial shields, gloves, hand sanitizer will be used. Voters will have to wear masks unless for a health reasons.  SOE will provide if don’t have masks. Voters will also be given single use pens and gloves for holding the stylus to sign in. There will be transparent shields between the inspectors and the voters and social distancing will be marked off. Ms Link also described the ‘Adopt a Precinct‘ program – where an organization can use their volunteers to staff a precinct, and use the money that would normally go to the poll-workers as a donation to their organization.
• City Manager Report:
  • City Manager Ferris gave an update on Covid-19 status as of Thursday July 16 – PBGMC had 35 covid cases, 53 beds available, 6 icu beds available and total of 4 deaths; Jupiter Medical Center had 30 cases; 68 beds available and 10 icu beds available with 23 deaths total;  of the 1449 residents in ALF/Nursing Homes there are 26 covid patients among 9 homes.
  • Charlotte Presensky.. Leisure Services Coordinator played a video entitled ‘we are parks and recreation’ celebrating what her team and the City does for the community in honor of Parks and Recreation Month.
  • Mayor Woods and Vice-Mayor Marino honored Candice Temple, Public Media Relations Manager and Madelyn Marconi for their work in creating the State of the City video presentation – which can be seen here.
• Proposed Millage for 2020/2021 and setting the date for the September Budget hearings: PBGWatch will do a more in-depth article prior to the September hearings.   But it needs to be noted that by holding the maximum Operational Millage flat at 5.55 for the last few years, the Council has been RAISING YOUR TAXES. Despite the political ‘device’ Vice-Mayor (and aspiring County Commissioner) Marino uses every time the budget is discussed by exclaiming that ‘we are lowering the millage and your taxes only go up because the value of your house went up’, taxes go up because the Council votes to raise them.  Taxes are the amount collected.  The City Council CAN VOTE TO LOWER THE TAX RATE – apparently a novel concept to all the recent Council Members other than Council Member Marciano, who has contemplated lowering millage in past years.
• Mayor Woods introduced Resolution 49, 2020 to name the City Hall, the Ronald M. Ferris Municipal Complex. He had Steve Mathison, Tom Kearnes (PGA Corridor), Noel Martinez (Palm Beach North CEO and President) and Tony Bedalla ( President – PBGYAA) lined up to offer their support. There was no advance notice nor opportunity for other Public Comment. See Iris Scheibl’s opinion piece – A Disturbing Trend.
• PBG Mobility Plan – While the two ordinances regarding changes made to existing documents to accommodate the City’s Mobility Plan were administrative in nature, Palm Beach County, represented by Khurshid Mohyuddin, Principal Planner, Transportation Planning Dept, made Public Comment objecting to the City’s Mobility Plan.

The next City Council Meeting will be on August 6th at 6 PM.

Council Approves Downtown Palm Beach Gardens ‘In Place’

The sole subject of the June 25 Special City Council meeting was Resolution 43, 2020 – to approve major changes for the “in place” portion of Downtown Palm Beach Gardens (aka Downtown at the Gardens). The resolution passed 5:0.

The applicant’s presentation was followed by a staff presentation. There was only public comment by one resident – Antionette Mauro, who lives in The Landmark. She voiced concerns that residents of the Landmark were led to believe that the carousel was going to be removed; when in fact it’s going to be moved even closer to their residence. Its new location would change the nature of that part of the lake from a meeting place and a serene space to an area with kids and an amusement ride.

The Council was convinced by staff’s assurance that the carousel must operate within city’s sound code limits and must stop at 8 pm during the week and at 9:30 pm on weekends with lights turned off at that time. The ‘choo-choo’ train is no more. The Council’s safety concerns about children running into the roadway to get to the carousel were also satisfied by the narrowing of the road and flashing signs at the crosswalks.

See photographs and other coverage of the plans at the Palm Beach Post article “New Downtown Palm Beach Gardens plans include interactive water feature for relocated carousel”.

City Establishes Food Services Stabilization Fund

First up, while a last-minute addition to the agenda, was Resolution 45, 2020 – the creation of the Food Services Stabilization Fund under the City’s existing $1 million Economic Recovery Act, which was approved last month. This second ‘wave’ of grants, amounting to $450K is targeted specifically to mid-size restaurants with 3-75 employees, in business for at least 18 months, owned by residents, and operational as of June 1.  As before – the Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce and the PGA Corridor, plus the City Manager and staff, were instrumental in defining the scope of the (up to) $15K grants.

The first wave of grants targeted smaller businesses; as of the meeting 54 applications were submitted, 21 were approved and approximately $404K has been paid out. There will not be a marketing campaign as was conducted for the first wave. Restaurants will be informed directly via the Chamber, PGA Corridor and the City of the new fund. Council Member Litt expressed concern about the accountability of the grant distribution if only the Chamber and PGA Corridor were spreading the word. City Manager Ferris assured the Council that all three organizations will use their lists and communications avenues to make sure restaurants are informed. Mayor Woods was concerned about the 18 month criteria and spoke on behalf of a specific restaurant that had been in business longer than a year but less than 18 months. Council Member Marciano expressed concern that there were other businesses not being covered by either program. Consensus in the discussion was that there would likely be a third ‘wave’ and a special City Council Mtg could be called to approve additional grants after the second wave grants had been issued, with other criteria. Here is a link to the Resolution  which passed 5:0

City Manager Report also included:

• A couple of videos capturing the City Staff and Council in the distribution of the $250 Publix Gift cards (of which 1124 have been distributed and the remaining 124 will be directed towards shut-ins who may not have been able to come in to apply); and the issuance of grants to small businesses.
• In light of the national focus on Police Departments, training and excessive force, Police Chief Shannon made a presentation on the City’s training and practices. He discussed the City’s certifications, 15 years of no non-compliances, multiple 1st line supervisors out in the streets all of the time, body-worn cameras, extensive review of any use of force, all officers are required to intervene with any other officer is using excessive or unnecessary force or doing anything outside policy. He also said that the City’s officers receive 10 times the amount of training that the state of FL requires and the policing policies stress the sanctity of life and the guardian mentality of the officers.

Ordinances and Resolutions:

• Council approved first reading of Ordinance 5 and 6 regarding the approval of a storage facility to take the place of the empty Crunch Fitness site. There was much discussion of the difficulty of access to the site but excellent visibility – both of which are necessary to make such a facility viable. At the same time, the proposed usage would reduce trips to the site on Northlake Blvd. While none on the Council were thrilled with yet another storage facility in the City, they and staff agreed that this was a good use of the difficult location.
• Resolution 35, 2020 – Avenir Pods 6,7 and 8 were approved 5:0 as well. The most unique aspect of the proposed gated community is the land bridges between the pods. Rather than roadway with culverts, each roadway going over the water has a park-like setting – where residents can view wide expanses of water and relax close to their homes.

Items for Council Action/Discussion and Items of Interest:

• Council Member Marciano informed the public that Vice Mayor Marino had submitted her resignation letter (‘resign to run’) effective October 2, 2020. Her last attendance on the Council would be October 1. City Attorney Lohman explained that the Council has the choice of appointing someone to fill the vacancy between Oct 2 and March 2021 when there would be a special election to fill the remainder of Marino’s term, or to leave it vacant until the special election. Marciano stressed that anyone who wants to run for the March election should probably start working on their campaign financing and efforts soon.
• Council Members Litt and Reed made statements expressly regarding racial and social justice, Council Member Marciano echoed their statements and said that the City leads by example and turns crises into the positive.
• Annual Evaluation of City Manager Ferris – all spoke effusively of Mr. Ferris’ leadership, respect by his staff, his results, and his actions so far this year with the pandemic, the Economic assistance to the community and the handling of the most recent social stresses.

City Attorney Report:   The Palm Beach County Tax Collector is suing the City over her ongoing refusal to dedicate a 26′ right of way in the new tax collector’s office.  City Attorney Lohman will be issuing a response shortly.

There will be a second City Council Meeting on June 25, 2020 – but the topic was not discussed, nor is the agenda available yet.

Council Moves to Assist Residents Impacted by Covid-19

The City Council once again conducted the May meeting via Zoom – with Mayor Woods, Vice Mayor Marino, Council Members Marciano and Reed in attendance but socially distanced in chambers, and Council Member Litt via videoconference. Unlike last month, we were unable to determine whether there were any physical presentations as there was no split screen either on the Youtube or Livestream recordings of the meeting. (We hope that in June, split screens will resume – otherwise this may well simply have been an audio recording).

Presentations – Michael Futterman of Marcum LLC spoke to the external audit of the Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR) for 2019 – the CAFR (including the auditors’ summary on pages 1-3) can be found here.

Mayor Woods initiated a change, approved by the Council, to move Items of Resident Interest and Board Committee Reports, to the end of City Council Meeting Agendas every month. He’d received feedback from business attendees concerned that they have to sit through 45 minutes of reports while waiting for the business for which they came to being. (PBG Watch has always been for moving this portion of the meeting to the end, and former Council Member Lane, when he made a similar proposal in May 2017 to move both this section and City Manager’s Report to the end, was soundly rebuffed by then Mayor Marino and City Manager Ferris – see New Council Asserts Itself 

Resolution 37, 2020 was added at the beginning of the meeting and is entitled “Creating the Economic Recovery Act ‎(ERA)‎ Grant Fund”. City Manager Ferris described the intent, the procedures and the joint effort with Palm Beach North Chamber of Commerce, PGA Corridor, Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce and staff to brainstorm and come up with both the Palm Beach Gardens Small Business Relief Fund  and the Palm Beach Gardens Unemployed Resident Fund.  Both are intended to provide assistance to those who are suffering as a result of the Covid-19 shut-down and who have not qualified for other relief (such as the federal PPP). The $1.3 million for the grants are funded directly from the City’s budgeted Economic Development Fund (which will have a balance of $1 million remaining). See the Palm Beach Post coverage of the press conference that announced the effort last Friday, May 8, here.  There were further comments and discussion and the Council agreed to move to the Resolution immediately after the City Manager report and it was passed 5:0.

The Consent Agenda passed 5:0 after Council Member Litt requested that Resolution 31, 2020 Amending the Procedures for Quasi-Judicial Hearings and Ex Parte Disclosures be pulled from Consent; and Vice Mayor Marino pulled item S – Proclaiming Municipal Clerks Week. Resolution 31 resulted in a lot of discussion. Section B of the attachment formalized changes that were simply updates, as explained by City Attorney Max Lohman. However Section A 1 and 2 were new and were viewed as limiting and problematic by Litt and Marciano.

Section A 1 and 2 are as follows:

A. Pre-Hearing Procedures
1. All discussions between a Councilmember and an applicant or applicant’s representative about development proposals shall be held in the presence of the City’s professional staff.
2. Information about any private written, telephonic, or electronic communication received by a Councilmember about a development proposal shall be forwarded to the City Manager for inclusion in the official file in the Planning and Zoning Department.

The final motion was to pass Section B of the resolution, and Section A could be modified and discussed at a future Council Meeting to alleviate concerns but to still provide for the transparency that the City Manager and Attorney were trying to accomplish by the proposal. The final vote was 3:2 with members Woods and Marino objecting.

The proclamation was pulled in order for the Council to thank Clerk Snider for her service to the City.

Ordinance 4, 2020 (2nd reading and adoption of Land Development Regulations) and Resolution 17 – Reappointing members to the Budget Oversight Review Board – passed 5:0.

City Attorney Lohman said that due to Covid-19, the actions of the courts are moving at a glacial pace and Rustic Lakes and Sear related lawsuits were moving slowly.

Public Comment was made by resident Ed Dolezal – speaking about 5G technology. He has made comment on the topic before.

“Zooming” It In***

The ‘novel’ corona virus resulted in a novel approach to conducting the April 2 Palm Beach Gardens City Council meeting.  While most in-person meetings were cancelled in the City, the council meeting was going to be held in the council chambers with minimum representation and adequate social distancing.  Council members Mark Marciano, out-going Matthew Lane, Rachelle Litt and in-coming Chelsea Reed participated remotely.  Council members Maria Marino and Carl Woods were in the chambers, along with City Manager Ferris, and minimal staff.   The Council was mostly visible on the livestream screen, along with presentation materials as needed, and the meeting proceeded fairly smoothly.

Congratulations to new Mayor Carl Woods, Vice Mayor Maria Marino, Vice Mayor Pro-Tem Rachelle Litt and new Council Member Chelsea Reed!   See the Palm Beach Post article for more information on the selection of the Mayor and Vice-Mayor and the meeting.

Public Comment was made via email and read by Mayor Woods:

• Marsha Thrower  – urged the City to issue a Stay At Home order and to close all non-essential businesses
• Former Mayor Marcie Tinsley – wished every well, thanked Matthew Lane for his service to the City and welcomed Chelsea Reed

City Manager Ferris described the adjustment to City Operations – schedules and staffing, summarized in his status report which can be read here.  He also thanked all the first-responders as the  heroes in these unusual times and that we all owe a lot to them.  He also thanked all the other employees who have been making everything work despite the limitations.  The City has reached out to Gardens and Jupiter hospitals who have adequate supplies.

Consent Agenda passed 5:0.  Council Member Reed asked that Resolution 11 be pulled – regarding future sidewalk and bike-path on Kyoto Gardens Drive – giving kudos to staff for their application to TPA and for furthering the City’s mobility plan.  Council Member Litt asked that Resolution 29 be pulled to have City Manager Ferris or City Attorney Lohman explain the purpose of the Resolution.  It would allow the City Manager to have the authority to continue the Covid-19 Emergency status as long as necessary, rather than needing council approval every seven days.  Both pulled items also passed 5:0.

Both Ordinance 4, 2020 first reading regarding updating land-use regulations to be consistent with recent state legislation, and Resolution 23, 2020 regarding Nuvo Business Center at the Gardens, passed 5:0 with minimal comment.

The Council then segued to external board and committee appointments, after which a discussion ensued regarding how to better inform the Public about Covid-19 related issues.  Most on the Council were getting questions from the Public – unrelated to the operations of the City and described their attempts to communicate with current information.  When it seemed that they were going to assign the task of dealing with the issue to the City Manager – he pushed back.  His job was to run the city, and he recognized that people were frustrated and scared about all kinds of things related to Covid-19.  He is not a physician, nor should the City be trying to get information on the location of affected patients, nor where is toilet paper.  The information on those kinds of issues are on tv, the radio, on the internet and social media.  He said that he gives the Council all the information he has and it’s their role to use what communications media they have to respond to their constituents.  Mayor Woods agreed, as did the Council, to continue to direct the public to the information they did have.

The business of the city goes on and all should be commended for their flexibility and patience during these unusual times.

(*** we have not confirmed that the City used Zoom for the City Council Meeting yet – but will update this comment if we’re able to find out which application was actually used)

 

 

 

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